Through the Glass Darkly
by Neemers
Summary: What happens when counterparts from a dimension at war appear in the X-evo world?
1. Discovery

Scott was driving the X-van home, minding his own business, when a bright flash came out of nowhere. He screeched to a halt as a group of nine suddenly appeared right in front of the van. Worried that he'd run over someone, he ran outside to find all nine in various stages of unconsciousness, but that wasn't what stunned him. All nine looked beat-up, malnourished, and neglected. In addition to this, two were obvious mutants, one of which that bore a strong resemblance to Kurt. Without a minutes thought, Scott bundled all of them into the back of the van, even one that looked to be some kind of pet dog, and called ahead to let the Professor know what he had found, and who he was coming home with.  
  
Fifteen minutes later he was at the Institute and all the mutants were mostly awake. One boy that looked like he was made out of frost skittered away from Scott the moment he came close and hid behind a nearly unconscious black boy. After a few moments of encouragement, the black boy managed to convince the frosty one to help support him, though the frosty one still looked ready to flee at any sudden movement. The one that looked like Kurt picked himself up as the dog whined encouragement. All slowly followed Scott inside, though all also kept a close eye on him, wary of any tricks, but unable to do much to defend themselves at that point.  
  
Once inside, Scott had a chance to study them in more detail. The one that looked like Kurt had eyes that glowed brighter than the original, a toe on each heel, talons in place of fingernails, and a midnight-blue coat of fur that seemed to blend into every passing shadow. He wore a black, armor-like outfit, complete with three swords. A moment later, Scott realized that the spaded tail was razor-sharp instead of soft and Fuzzy like Kurt's.  
  
Two of the boys looked like identical twins. At first, Scott had taken them for very short adults, but a moment later he realized that they were just children. The older look came from eyes that had seen far too much, like pictures of holocaust survivors he'd seen.  
  
One could have been Kitty's more mature twin, if it hadn't been for the shorter haircut and malnourished look. The moment he picked this out, he did a double-take on the twins, and realized that they looked just like Jamie. A moment later he realized that others looked like skewed versions of Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, and Evan. All bore so many scars that it was difficult to tell until he started actively looking for familiar bits. He suspected that the frosty boy would look like Bobby, if he ever stopped twitching long enough to look up so Scott could see his face. He ignored the dog curled up by the blue one's feet.  
  
A moment later, the Professor wheeled in and asked who the new arrivals were, and where they had come from. The one that looked like Kurt responded, "You might want to settle down. It's quite a story, and one difficult to believe.  
  
"My name is Michael Darkholme. This is Cat," he said as he pointed to the Kitty lookalike, "James (Jamie lookalike), Pietro, Wanda, Evan, Robert (frost boy), and, of course, Rahne (the dog).  
  
"We are from what you would call a parallel dimension, one where mutants have been rabidly hunted for nearly a generation, ever since a man called Magneto showed our kind to the world and demanded that it make him its ruler. Naturally, the world declared him its enemy, and also declared mutants a threat to be exterminated. For my entire life we've been hunted down, killed, or worse. Men chased us down with armies, robots, and any other means they could think up. Finally, we realized that there were too few of us left, and we'd all be exterminated if we didn't do something. One of the members of out resistance, Forge, created a device that would let us pass into parallel dimensions. We had just enough time left to set up the portal, and send groups off into different dimensions. After that, Scott found us and brought us here."  
  
At this point Scott interrupted, "How do you know my name? I never told you."  
  
"Ah, yes, but I knew the Scott from our universe. Do you really think we would have come along so quietly if we thought we were in danger? In out world, you're a known mutant, meaning that if there is a mutant problem here, you'd be one of the best people to go to."  
  
A rapid-fire question and answer session followed, ending when Ororo got home and walked in the door. Evan got up and walked up to her, looking as if he'd seen a ghost. He reached out to touch her cheek, pulling his hand back a moment later, as if he'd been shocked. The whole time, he never stopped staring at her.  
  
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	2. Settling

Evan's reverie was broken when Michael slowly slumped over and collapsed, and everyone noticed for the first time that part of the dark shine on Michael's armor was from blood. Faster than anyone could blink, Pietro had him out of the armor and the clothes under it. Cat inspected the bandages and wounds revealed, then muttered something about machoist self-denying jackasses. Half the bandages had started unwinding and all were too soaked with blood to do much good. While the guests huddled around Michael and tried to figure out what to do, Dr. McCoy galloped off to retrieve his medical bag.  
  
After a few minutes of desperate attempts to stem the bloodflow, Dr. McCoy returned. Pietro saw him before he even got close to Michael, as the evidence showed. Within seconds of emptying Hank of his load, Pietro had managed to clean, stitch, and bandage Michael's wounds. Hank would have liked to check on Michael himself, but a dozen Jameses barred anyone from getting close. After a few tense minutes and explanations, they finally let him pass, but continued watching him like a hawk.  
  
Moments later Dr. McCoy declared that Michael would be fine and the Professor asked the guests if there was anything they could use. A few lowered heads and suspicious looks were the only answer.  
  
Ororo, having been filled in by Jean on what was going on, said, "From the looks of them I think they could all use a good meal." Robert managed a small smile from where he was still rocking in the corner, and the others looked as if they wanted to confirm her suspicions but didn't want to seem weak. "Please follow me to the kitchen."  
  
Everyone waited for a moment while Evan gathered Michael into his arms, then followed after Ororo. Kurt tried to get a better look at his counterpart, but a freshly grown hedge of spikes and a fierce glare warned him away from Evan. Once they were in the kitchen, Evan set Michael down and Wanda helped him sit up.  
  
"What are we allowed?" Wanda asked warily.  
  
"Anything we have here," Ororo replied.  
  
Before she was even done speaking, a quick wind deposited a full gallon of milk in front or Evan and Pietro was standing in front of the fridge, rifling through everything. By the time he'd finished looking through the fridge and started on the cupboards, Evan had the milk opened and gone. Partway through his trek around the cupboards, Pietro stopped his inspection long enough to bring Evan a bottle of Calcium tablets he'd found, and everyone realized exactly what the milk had been for as Evan started crunching them dry.  
  
Moments later Pietro had started warming up soup for the semi-conscious Michael and had created sandwiches for everyone else, though he didn't bother with plates or napkins. He even set one out for the dog, though if the rate everyone was eating was any indication, they wouldn't be nearly enough. Ororo set to work on quick food that would be ready by the time they were done with their sandwiches, watching Evan out of the corner of her eye as she worked. At this point, he was more interested in the food and calcium than her. She wondered how much of the guests' willingness to let down their guard to eat was due to half a dozen of James' dupes keeping watch over the proceedings. 


End file.
